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Gopal Baratham

Gopal Baratham (Dr) (b. 9 September 1935 - d. 23 April 2002, Singapore), prominent neurosurgeon and distinguished author of three novels, five volumes of short stories and a non-fiction book, was considered a literary light during his lifetime. His first book, the political thriller, A Candle or The Sun, won the Southeast Asia Write Award in 1991 and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 1992. One of the first Singapore writers to have their work published by a British publisher, he received international praise for his fictional writings that are based on Singapore society.

Early life
Gopal Baratham was born to a very middle-class, educated, liberal Brahmin family. His grandfather and father were medical doctors while his mother was a nurse. His parents divorced when he was about nine years old.

Baratham was educated at a Japanese school during World War II where he remembered not having any "normal schoolwork", much less a textbook. His education then consisted primarily of some singing lessons and a lot of drilling and marching.

His early education was influenced greatly by his father and his uncle Luther. His father taught Baratham to read English when he was four, introduced him to the newspapers and dictionary, talked to him about "all sorts of things", including Picasso, surrealism and the space-time continuum when he was eight, and read Shakespeare to him and his sister in the evenings. His uncle Luther, his mother's cousin, came to them during the war. He was a great storyteller who enthralled Baratham with tales like David Copperfield and Tess of D'urbervilles. Luther introduced painting to the children, got them books to read, and made them memorise huge tracks of verse and prose. Baratham's uncle Luther "could never stop talking about literature" and Baratham considered his uncle as the most important literary influence in his life.

After the war, Baratham studied at St. Andrew's School. He excelled in both his studies and sports. He wrote poems that appeared in his school magazine. He was consistently top of his class each year. His love for cricket earned him the school captainship of his school cricket team. He graduated as the top student in St. Andrew's for the Cambridge exams.

Career
Baratham went on to study medicine in the University of Malaya, Singapore. He spent seven years training as a neurosurgeon in England and returned to Singapore to work as a neurosurgeon at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he stayed until 1987. He then went into private practice, retiring from full practice in 1999.

Baratham, like many other writers, had his start in writing when he was still in school. He enjoyed telling himself stories, and "telling stories to people who listen". He started writing weekly articles for the local newspapers for a year and a half towards the end of his medical school days. From the ages of 23 to 39, Baratham did not do any actual story writing, concentrating mainly on his career and family life. Thereafter, he began writing again, with his first short story, "Island", appearing in the Commentary magazine in 1974.

His writings
Baratham's work draws on his personal experiences of colonialism, racism, nationalism, industrialisation, modernisation, globalisation and renaissance longings. They gave him perspectives, attitudes and values that influenced his writings which in turn gave his works a depth and resonance that many younger writers cannot grasp. He addressed themes such as the stratification of Singapore society, alienation, fate or choice and certainty, and wrote about political and moral issues.

Baratham's characters come from virtually every background and class. His stories are peopled by Indians, Chinese, Malays and Eurasians, Europeans. There is an ambivalence said about Baratham's stories as he does not judge his characters directly, leaving that to the reader. This accords with his sympathetic understanding of events and people, their actions and relationships.

A characteristic of his writing is the use of blunt and strong language. He once said that he had "never shied away from using strong language when the situation demanded it. But none of the sex or violence in my book is gratuitous. There is always a reason behind it."

He was one of the first Singapore writers to have their works published by a British publisher. His second and third novel, A Candle Or The Sun (1991) and Moonrise Sunset (1996), were published by Britain's Serpent's Tail. A Candle Or The Sun became an internationally-acclaimed political thriller and was short-listed for Best Book in the 1992 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Death
Baratham's death at 66 from pneumonia shocked many in the medical and literary fraternity. They expressed a keen sense of loss for a man best remembered as a disarmingly down-to-earth, compassionate and jovial surgeon who always had a kind word for his patients, and as a prominent, articulate, outspoken writer who spoke his mind without fear. With his death, his autobiography, Beads in a Sutra, remains unfinished.

Awards/ Achievements
1974 : First short story, "Island", published in Commentary, a publication of the National University of Singapore.
1982 : National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) Highly Commended book award for Figments of Experience.
1990 : Listed in National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) Commended book award for People Make You Cry and Other Stories.
1991 : Southeast Asia Write Award.
1991 : Elected President of the ASEAN Association of Neurosurgeons.
1992 : Short-listed for Commonwealth Book Prize for A Candle or the Sun.

Works
Novels
1991 : Sayang.
1991 : A Candle or the Sun.
1996 : Moonrise, Sunset.

Short Stories
1981 : Figments of Experience.
1988 : Love Letter and Other Stories.
1988 : People Make You Cry and Other Stories.
1995 : Memories that Glow in the Dark.
2000 : The City of Forgetting: The Collected Stories of Gopal Baratham.

Non-fiction
1994 : The Caning of Michael Fay

Family
Wife: Chelsea.
Former wife: Pauline.
Children: Three sons from marriage with Pauline, fourth son, deceased.



Author
Nureza Ahmad



References 
Klein, R. D. (Ed.). (2001). Interlogue: Studies in Singapore literature (Vol. 4, pp.80-103). Singapore: Ethos books.
(Call no.: SING 809.895957)

Voices in the wilderness. (1982, July 16). Asiaweek, 46-47.

Koh, B. S. (1991, July 13). Neurosurgeon wins literary award. The Straits Times, p. 26.

Koh, B. S. (1994, August 13). Boy is caned, nation gets flogged. The Straits Times, Life, p. 19.

Koh, B. S. (1995, March 4). Issues of trust and betrayal. The Straits Times, Life, p.20.

Murugasu, S. (1996, March 27). Primetime Baratham- Singapores rising son. The Star, Section 2, pp.1, 3- 4.

Neurosurgeon to receive writer's award. (1991, September 21). The Straits Times, p. 29.

Ong, S. F. (2000, August 30). Short stories, long memory. The Straits Times.

Thumboo, E. (2000, August 30). Past told with sensitivity. The Straits Times.

Vasuki, S. N. (1992, March 28). Speaking his mind. The Business Times, p. 3.


Further Readings
Kraal, D. (2002, April 30). My hero, in many ways. The Straits Times. 

Lee, J. (2002, April 24). Free spirit Gopal Baratham dies. The Straits Times.

Lee, J. (2002, April 26). 200 give jazzy farewell to Gopal Baratham. The Straits Times.

Getforme.com. (c1999 - 2002). Writer Gopal Baratham dies of pneumonia. Retrieved May 19, 2004, from www.getforme.com/previous2002/previous250402_WriterGopalBarathamDiesOfPneumonia.htm

National Book Development Council of Singapore. (2004, June 3). Singapore Book Prizes. Retrieved May 19, 2004, from www.nbdcs.org.sg/Sing_NBDCS.htm



The information in this article is valid as at 2004 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Personalities>>Biographies>>Artists
Authors
Neurosurgeons--Singapore
Language and literature>>Fiction
Language and literature>>Literatures>>East and Southeast Asian literature>>Singapore literature



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